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A broader look at today’s business
‘UNSMOKED’
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Sunday, January 22, 2023 Vol. 18 No. 99
P25.00 nationwide | 3 sections 20 pages | 7 DAYS A WEEK
Gains in the foothold of heated tobacco products (HTPs) in the global market may be ‘good’ for public health, but other sectors disagree
A
By Vittorio V. Vitug
HABITUAL smoker for more than 30 years, George (not his real name), 57, went from Marlboros to e-cigarettes and then back again. Unsatisfied with the taste and feel of flavored e-cig juices, he was on this seesaw for several years until he came across Blends, a heated tobacco product (HTP) launched recently in the Philippines. With breakthrough technology, HTPs impart the thrill of smoking without much of the health hazards. By heating real tobacco rather than burning it, HTPs produce no ash with no smoke and less smell than conventional or traditional cigarettes. IQOS, the world’s No. 1 tobacco heating system created by Philip Morris International (PMI) as its first smoke-free product, is known to substantially diminish the tox-
icity of tobacco because it is the act of burning that releases thousands of toxic chemicals. When tobacco is heated as done with IQOS, 90 to 95 percent of those toxins are not present, according to PMI. While the highly addictive nicotine is present in both, it is not the primary cause of smokingrelated diseases, the world’s largest tobacco company has noted. “PMFTC, as the market leader
PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 54.6880
in the Philippines, is committed to put the country at the hub of the global smoke-free future. The addition of Bonds by IQOS to our smoke-free portfolio in the Philippines is another significant step towards that goal of a smoke-free future for 14 million Filipino smokers and their loved ones,” said Denis Gorkun, president of PMFTC, PMI’s affiliate in the Philippines. Bonds by IQOS is the affordable version of the revolutionary product. It was launched locally in November last year. The device has an average selling price of P990, while its accompanying specially designed tobacco sticks called Blends can be bought for P100 per 20-stick pack. “Bonds by IQOS offers our legalage consumers access to a compact, low-maintenance and hassle-free smoke-free product—validated by science as a better alternative to cigarettes. With a retail price of P100 per 20-stick pack, Blends is actually sold at a lower price than most of the popular cigarette brands,” Dave Gomez, communications director at PMFTC, told the BusinessMirror in an email interview.
Findings presented at the 2022 London E-Cigarette Summit
PROF. Alan R. Boobis, emeritus professor of toxicology at Imperial College London, told summit participants that, considering the public health consequences of cigarette smoking and there being few alternatives attractive to smokers, e-cigarettes or electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) could mitigate some of the harm. E-CIGARETTESUMMIT.COM
DR. Sivakumar Thurairajasingam, associate professor in psychiatry and head of the Clinical School Johor Bahru, Monash University Malaysia, reported that about 49 percent of current smokers in Malaysia had attempted to quit at least once in the past 12 months, with only a third of them succeeding. E-CIGARETTESUMMIT.COM
EVIDENCE proving the viability of smoke-free alternatives as tools to diminish the public health burden from prevalent smoking have been presented in certain fora. The latest findings were presented at the London E-Cigarette Summit on December 9 last year at the Royal College of Physicians, where experts from the scientific and medical communities tackled the science, regulation and public health dimensions of smoking cessation. Documenting the European experience, the 10th annual e-cigarette convention also identified the important role low-to-middleincome countries (LMICs) could play in achieving global goals. Filipino summit participant Dr. Lorenzo Mata Jr., president of advocacy group Quit for Good, found the revelations enlightening. “Dr. Jamie Hartmann-Boyce from the University of Oxford presented a 2022 review of 78 completed studies—representing 22,052 participants across the United Kingdom, the United States Continued on A2
n JAPAN 0.4259 n UK 67.7639 n HK 6.9845 n CHINA 8.0735 n SINGAPORE 41.3802 n AUSTRALIA 37.7839 n EU 59.2326 n KOREA 0.0444 n SAUDI ARABIA 14.5602
Source: BSP (January 20, 2023)
MAREN WINTER | DREAMSTIME.COM
www.businessmirror.com.ph